The
suit, filed Nov. 26th in North Carolina Superior Court, claims that
Mykel Hawkeye, popularly known as Mykel Hawke, conspired with four
other individuals to defame Joe Teti and intentionallydeprive him of valuable sponsorshipswith Cabelas, TOP Knives, Casio and several other companies.

Joe Teti

Photo credit: Discovery Channel

At
the heart of the matter are public statements from Hawke claiming that
Joe Teti lied about his military qualifications, impersonated a combat
veteran, and due to negligence, caused thedeath of three peopleduring the filming of a TV show that was originally scheduled to air on the Discovery Channel last year.

Here is one of Hawke's public statements:

"This is not about a man (Cody Lundin) who was hired for not wearing shoes for 20 yrs and 4 seasons on a show (Dual Survival), and then fired for the same thing. It's about what changed. That change (Joe Teti) came with a truck load of falsehoods. Those got 3 men dead. Now this real survival guy (Lundin) has beenfired. It is easy to see the fake drama created to make the new 'expert' look like a hero, but his real record is anything but, and now, he continues to risk more folks' safety. Sorry, truth hurts sometimes. Anyway, next article in the installment of soap opera drama, and somewhat belittled again, by the media, failing to grasp the real issues. Nonetheless, I share, as was shared with me. Judge as you will."

Teti claims in the lawsuit that he did not embellish his military record. He says the real reason Hawke, his old
friend and former commander, started the smear campaign is because he
had "tried and failed to initiate a television career based upon his
military service" and was "driven by the motive of jealousy to destroy
Mr Teti's successful television career."

The
suit further claims that Hawke enlisted the help of Special Forces Association President Jack Tobin, Special Forces Association member
George Davenport, 'Military Phonies' website creator Scott A. Hughes,
and a private individual by the name of Monique Haina to carry out the
defamation campaign against Teti.

The Special Forces Association website:

"CIVIL CONSPIRACY"

According to the court filing, Teti's
attorney, former Special Forces Officer David Redding, says
Special Forces Association president Jack Tobin and Special Forces
Association member George Davenport assisted Hawke in his defamation
campaign by intentionally giving false information to the Army Times
regarding the cancelling of Teti's membership.

Teti's
attorney says Tobin and Davenport were not being honest when they
implied that Teti was kicked out of the Special Forces Association, after
soldiers that Teti served with came forward to them with allegations of his misconduct.

Davenport was quoted as saying "He’s
an embarrassment to the Regiment, because of the falsehoods, lies and
embellishments he’s used in association with his Special Forces
qualifications. I personally checked with the Special Forces schools and
he did not go to those courses. There is no record of him attending.”

Special Forces Association President Tobin was quoted in the article stating "Mr Teti is no longer a member and cannot rejoin."

Davenport,
who also runs the “Special Forces Poser Patrol” Facebook page, added
Teti to the group’s “Wall of Shame” September 30th after the Special Forces
Association's decision to discontinue his membership.

Redding says that all Teti did was miss paying his annual dues, causing a lapse
in membership. When Teti went to make a payment to reinstate his
membership, he was told he could not re-join the group.

According
to Teti's attorney, Tobin and Davenport spun the story into something
much more serious when they spoke with the Army Times regarding Teti's
membership being discontinued.

Going into more detail in the suit, Redding says:

"Mr.
Tobin refused to comment further on the specifics of Mr. Teti's
disassociation from the SFA in order to implicitly affirm Mr.
Davenport's slanderous statements about Mr. Teti.By the conduct of Mr. Tobin, the SFA has adopted the slanderous statements of Mr. Davenport.

As
a result.....the public is left to conclude that the disassociation was
based on Mr. Teti's conduct...when in fact....it was (done) without
cause and was done by the SFA in violation of its own constitutional due
process requirements."

Hughes reacted to the suit by telling the Military Times "I'm
not worried about it,"I'm actually glad to see it, because hopefully
this will force him to show his DD-214 and his NGB-22, which is what
we've been asking all along. There's a lot that will come out in court,
if it comes to that."

Haina denies she was enlisted by Hawke, telling the Military Times "I don't believe I defamed him. We've simply been asking for him to prove his claims."

The Plot Thickens- Hawke Family granted permanent protective order against Teti in Texas

The lawsuit also reveals that Mykel Hawke was able to secure a permanent protective order against Joe Teti in the State of Texas on the grounds that
Teti stalked Hawke and his family. The protective order caused Teti to
lose his rights to own firearms due to federal law.

Mykel Hawke and The Special Forces Association's reaction to the Lawsuit

Jack Tobin and the SFA "did not respond to repeated requests for comment," according to an article in theMilitary Times.
Davenport also declined to comment, pending consultation with his
attorney.

The Times article states that Joe Teti declined to
comment, but Teti has been posting photos on his Facebook page to counter critics who say he hasn't completed certain training, such as Combat Diver School (link to photo).

Mykel Hawke, however, has not remained silent.

When asked about the suit, Hawke told the Military Times "We actually are looking forward to a court case so we can subpoena his real records and finally show the truth."

Hawke also took his argument to his Facebook page, telling his fans "According to this (lawsuit), we are all liars conspiring out of jealously and only one man is honorable? The same man who makes military valor claims to the public for profit, but says his records are too secret to show and prove his claims."

Teti's attorney David Redding, says Teti will seek more than $1 million in damages in the suit.

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Last January when I was covering SHOT Show, I had the good fortune to run into Dan Haggerty, star of the 1970s TV Show "Grizzly Adams." Dan was at SHOT on behalf of Young Adventurers, an organization that helps young people build character, hope and vision through outdoors experiences.

Dan on the cover of TV Guide in the late 1970s

For
those not old enough to remember Grizzly Adams, it was a TV show about a
guy who lived during the mid-1800s who had to "bug out" and live in the
mountains to escape charges for a murder he didn't commit.

While
making his way into the mountains, Adams ran across an orphaned Grizzly
Bear cub stuck on a ledge. He felt bad for the stranded animal and
decided to rescue it. The cub and Adams quickly bonded and became
lifelong friends.

As outlandish as the story sounds, it was actually based on the real life story of "John Capen Adams," a famous mountain man and grizzly bear trainer who traveled the west during the mid-1800s with his pet grizzlies.

Dan
Haggerty's portrayal of a grizzled yet warm-hearted mountain man struck
a chord with millions of Americans and left an indelible
print on American culture.

Evidence
of this enduring influence can be seen in movies such as "Happy
Gilmore," where in one scene, Christopher McDonald's character, Scooter
McGavin, mouths off to Adam Sandler's character Happy Gilmore, saying
'Yeah right, and Grizzly Adams had a beard!"

Here are some photos of Dan I took while he was at the Young Adventurer's booth, joined by actorDarby Hinton, who starred on the popular TV show"Daniel Boone":

(click any photo to enlarge)

I had a great time talking with Dan, and got to share with him the
influence Grizzly Adams had on me as a kid. Dan was really down to
earth and had a great sense of humor. He was even gracious enough to
offer to let us interview him, so check back again as Spring draws
closer and hopefully we'll have an interview posted.

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Hey
everyone, it's Leah, the senior copy editor of RMB. I don't post very often, since I
usually work more behind the scenes editing Jason's articles and
reviews, but thought it would be fun to share one of my favorite pieces
of gear- Coghlan's folding 7" Sierra Saw.
Although
I don't have Jason's experience when it comes to testing gear, I do
enjoy trying out many of the cool products that we review here at RMB in
order to get a better perspective when editing.

One of the products I've grown to love is Coghlan's Sierra Saw, which I first got about a year ago.

My
yard ends in woods, and years ago someone planted English Ivy that was
left to overrun the place. The ivy vines running up the tree trunks were
inches thick. I had tried using other tools to combat the evil invader,
but to no avail.

The
Sierra Saw was light and small enough to maneuver under and around the
vines, and strong enough to cut through stems the size of a tennis ball
without getting stuck. I don't have a ton of arm strength, so when I
use a saw I have trouble with the blade getting stuck, it's usually followed
by more than a few choice words! The Sierra Saw doesn't ever seem to
stick.

With
the holiday season upon us, I had a reason to put my Sierra Saw to good
use again for preparing the Christmas tree, so I thought I'd take a few
photos with theAT&T Samsung Galaxy S5 Active Phonethat I'm testing.

Christmas
is still weeks away, so I wanted to put the tree in some water to help
keep it fresh. I thought I'd pull out the Sierra Saw to trim a slice off
the bottom. This used to be a struggle. Saws would get stuck, the tree
would move, the cut would be uneven. Not with the Sierra Saw! It
probably didn't even take a full minute to cut a slice off the bottom
and put the trunk in a bucket of water!

Even if you never go hiking, get yourself a Coghlan's Sierra
Saw. It's as useful in the suburbs as it is in the woods. In fact, I
liked it so much that I even gave one to a friend as a Christmas present
last year!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Who says you need a big honkin' survival knife to baton logs?! In bushcrafting, it's all about making the most of what you have. If you have a shorter knife, but need to split logs in an emergency to get to the dry wood, just whittle down your log by batoning the outside edges first. The log will gradually reduce in circumference and become more manageable.

The thin pieces you baton off can then be used for kindling, fireboards,
crude digging trowels, utensils, trap-making, or anything else you can
think of.

Last month, I attended the 2014 Winter Camping Symposiumin
Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota. After the Symposium, I made my way northward
to Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, an area on the US-Canadian border renowned
for its beauty and pristine wilderness.

A
friend, who accompanied me on the trip, had some family property on
Gunflint. She was well-versed in the area's cool attractions. One of the
places she wanted me to visit was theTrail Center Lodge,
a historic locale which she said had an "amazing breakfast." Boy was
she right! The breakfast there truly WAS amazing. Their pork sausage
gravy was literally the best sausage gravy I had ever eaten.

After breakfast in Trail Center's restaurant, my friend tugged at my sleeve to check out their "Camp Chow"
brand camp food, which was on display at the gift shop. She said Camp
Chow had a great reputation with the locals, and that we should consider
grabbing some to take back to Colorado.

Impressed by the breakfast I had at the restaurant, I took
her advice and grabbed a couple of the Camp Chow meals to take home with
me. 'Shrimp Chowder' and 'Wild Rice Casserole with Pork' looked
interesting, so I settled on those.

Back home in Colorado, I fired up my stove and tried them both. Wow, were they delicious!

Definitely a nice change of pace fromMountain House Backpacking Food.
Although I like Mountain House, the Camp Chow is on a whole other
level. Camp Chow tastes like high quality restaurant food and takes
only a little more effort to make than an instant Mountain House meal.Foodiesthat like to camp and backpack, take note!

Impressed
by the taste of Camp Chow, I decided to get in touch with Sarah
Hamilton, the owner of Trail Center and the genius behind Camp Chow.

Sarah
decided to start the Camp Chow brand after listening to thousands of
comments from her restaurant patrons. Fresh from hiking the Gunflint
Trail or canoeing the Boundary Waters, these wayward travelers often
complained of dehydrated backpacking food that was bland, too salty, or
over-processed.

So she used her
expertise, from years of serving delicious foods at her restaurant, to
create an alternative to the less than stellar backpacking pabulum her
patrons had been eating.

Camp Chow
quickly became a favorite with local outfitters. In fact, her Camp Chow
'Pork Gravy' recipe became so popular that Sarah now uses it in her
restaurant!

After speaking with Sarah, she very graciously offered to send Leah and
I some of her Camp Chow food to sample. Yes folks, she really had to
twist our arms on this one!

Most of
Camp Chow's food is easy to make (i.e. just add to boiling water), and
quick, taking just 5-7 minutes for most of the breakfast meals and 8-15
minutes for a dinner entree. In keeping with Sarah's philosophy, Camp
Chow meals tend to be slightly less salty than average, allowing users
to tweak them to perfection with a touch of salt if desired.

I've
now sampled several new Camp Chow meals that Sarah sent. These have
included her Chicken Alfredo, Beef Stroganoff, Broccoli and Cheese and
James' Rice Pudding. They were all outstanding-- fresh, flavorful,
delightfully complex, you name it.

And
then there are Sarah's pork gravy breakfast meals. I tried her
'Sausage Gravy with Scambled Eggs' and 'Grits with Pork Sausage.' Both
of these meals were every bit as good as I remember from Sarah's
restaurant-- in other words-- fantastic!

Sarah has many more
meals listed on her site, including soups, creative camp breads
(bushcrafting bannock lovers, are you listening?), lunch entrees, side
dishes, and desserts, which you can check out here-http://shop.trailcenterlodge.com/Dinner_c22.htm

Conclusion

Although
none of the Camp Chow meals are exactly cheap ($6 to $10 per meal),
they taste great, portions are very generous, and the ingredients are
fresh and very high quality. In fact, I bet you could really impress
your significant other on a day hike if you whipped out some Camp Chow
for an impromptu lunch on the trail.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Hey Gerber knife fans, check it out. Come January, Gerber plans to release a new US made survival knife called the "StrongArm."

Sporting
a 4.8" fine edge blade made from 420HC Stainless, the StrongArm appears
to be based on Gerber's hugely popular serrated-edgeProdigy Survival Knife.
Fans of the Prodigy have been begging Gerber for years to introduce a
fine-edged version of the Prodigy. Could this be the knife they've been
hoping for?

Although
the StrongArm was created with military survival in mind, it has great
potential to be a no-frills, functional survival knife for civilian use
like the Prodigy.

The StrongArm's sheath is reminiscent of the Prodigy's, but with a slimmer profile, ala' Cold Steel'sSecure-EX sheaths.

Although Gerber is listing the StrongArm's MSRP at $75.00, Knife Center is
already taking pre-orders for this knife at $39.95. At this price, it
could be the deal of the century for a quality, name brand survival
blade that's made right here in the good ol' USA.

The
StrongArm will be available in both fine and serrated edge versions.
The official word from Gerber is a release date of January 1st. Check
back here in January and we should have a review posted on the
StrongArm, including a direct comparison with the Prodigy.

GERBER GEAR'S OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:Gerber StrongArm Fixed BladeGerber has been making survival knives for the US Military since
1968. The StrongArm Fixed Blade knife carries on our legacy of
tough-as-hell fixed blade knives for combat and survival applications.
Featuring a fine edge, full tang 420HC blade with black
ceramic coating, the knife was designed around the fundamentals of
military survival training. Obtain a solid grip on this knife in all
conditions with its diamond texture rubberized handle.

ONE SHEATH, MULTIPLE MOUNTING OPTIONS

The StrongArm’s modular sheath system is as important as the knife
itself. With the sheath’s snap-together components, the operator can
mount the knife vertically on MOLLE, horizontally on a standard 1.75”
tactical belt, or in a traditional drop-leg belt
mount fashion. The StrongArm Fixed Blade is proudly built in Portland,
OR. MSRP: $75.

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Rocky Mountain Buschcraft would like to say a big thank you to Nikon for sending us their newD5300 DSLR Camerato test and review.

As
longtime readers know, we love to capture great images to put into our
reviews and articles, so it will be a real treat to use the D5300 after
using an aging 10-year-old Canon PowerShot for so long to take photos
here at RMB.

The
D5300 has some really cool features like 24 Megapixel image quality,
'EXPEED' 4 image-processing engine, built-in 1080/60p Full HD Video
Camera, and 3.2-in. vari-angle LCD monitor, as well as built-in WI-FI
and GPS capability. The lens that came with our test unit is aNikkor 18-140mm lens:

According
to my research, this lens is highly recommended by Nikon camera
enthusiasts if you're looking for a lens that can handle a wide range of
activities, such as long range, close up (macro shots), wide angle, and
portrait shots.

Since
I'm not a camera reviewer, I don't plan to write a technical review of
the D5300. What I do want to find out is -- Does it take great photos
and video in different outdoor lighting conditions? Is it easy to use?
Is it reliable? How long does the battery last? How well does the Nikkor
18-140mm lens handle various outdoor adventure shots?

My
first impression of the D5300 camera is definitely favorable. The user
manual is easy to understand. When set in auto mode, I found it works
like a simple point and click camera that quickly adjusts for different
light conditions. To give you a better idea, here are some photos I took
with the D5300 right after it arrived, using the auto mode:

Update-Since our initial review of the Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera, we have been looking for a rugged case that would allow the D5300 to withstand harsh vehicle rides into the backcountry for our gear testing sessions. After a bit of searching, plus asking the advice of a local wildlife photographer, we ended up selecting Pelican's IM2100 Storm Case:

Pelican Storm Cases are water resistant, dustproof, and crushproof. Due to their rugged and reliable construction, they are widely used by the military, law enforcement and professionals in TV, film and journalism to keep sensitive electronic equipment safe from damage while in the field.

Pelican Storm Cases are made in the USA and come with a lifetime warranty.